Improvement in compound surface-condensers



expose to view the ends of the tubes.

UNITED STATES \VILLIAM A. LIGHTHALL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN COMPOUND SURFACE-CONDENSERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 116,728, dated uly 4,1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. LIGHTHALL, engineer, doing business atNo.5 Bowling Green, in the city, county, and State of New York, haveinvented an Improved Compound Surface-Condenser; and I do hereby declarethat the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same,reference being had to the accompanying drawing making a part of thisspecification.

My invention relates to that form of surfacecondenser in which thesteam, vapor, or fluid to be condensed or cooled is conducted throughthe tubes, while the exterior surfaces of the same are exposed to thewater, air, or other refrigerating medium. My invention consists: 1st,of a surface-condenser, consisting of a number of tubes exposedexternally to a refrigerating medium and combined with partitionedchambers com municating with the interior of the tubes, and arranged insuch manner that the steam or vapor to be condensed or the fluid to becooled is conducted back and forth through different sections of thetubes, and is thereby better distributed over the condensing-surfacesthan in the usual method of construction. 2d, of the arrangement of aperforated plate in the case containing the tubes in such manner as todistribute'the water, air, or other refrigerating medium equally to allparts of the said case.

In the drawing, Figure 1 represents an end ele vation of asurface-condenser for steam-engines, constructed in accordance with myimprovements, the outer bonnet of the same being removed to Fig. 2represents, in part, a side elevation of the same and, in part, avertical longitudinal section of the same on the lines aw in Fig. 1.

The tubes are designated a a a, and are secured at their ends in anyapproved manner in the tube-sheets A. The whole of the tubes areinclosed in the usual manner in a large chamber or case, B, securedsuitably to the tube-sheets, and at each end of the tubes areconstructed chambers G C, which communicate with the open ends of thetubes, and are provided with suitable bonnets. At the bottom,preferably, of the case B is arranged a chamber, 1), covered by aperforated plate, M. The water, air, or other refrigerating medium isconducted into the chamber D by a suitable pipe, b, and passingthrough.the openings in the perforated plate M is distributed equally toall parts of the case, and rising to the top thereof flows away througha suitable pipe, 0. The steam or vapor to be condensed is introducedinto one of the chambers 0, preferably at the top, through a suitablenozzle, (1, and is conducted back and forth, through difierent sectionsof the tubes, to a suitable discharge-openin g, j, which connects,usually, with the air-pump. The tubes are divided into sections by meansof partitions in the chambers G C, so arranged as to direct the steamfrom one section of the tubes to another, and thus, in effect, form acontinuous condensing exhaust-pipe extending from the illlet d to theoutlet f. In the arrangement shown, the chamber G is provided with onelong partition, 9, extending from the top to the bottom of said chamber,and one short horizontal partition h, extending from the partition 9 tothe side of said chamber, and the chamber G is provided with onehorizontal partition, j, opposite h for a portion of its length,extending from side to side of said chamber. The steam entering at clpasses successively through the tubes in the sections E, F, G, and H, inthe order named, and the condensed water and incondensible gases arefinally withdrawn through the nozzle f. The partitions may evidently bearranged so as to cause the steam to traverse through the condenser anydesired number of times.

I am aware that surface-condensers have been made by exhausting thesteam through a large number of tubes, but in all such cases theaggregate area of the tubes was so great that the steam was not equallydistributed; and I have found by experiment with this kind of condenserthat, by reducing the number of tubes through which the steam isrequired to pass, a much higher rate of condensation per unit of surfaceis obtained.

In practice I, in most cases, make the area of the tubes in each sectionequal to oralittle greater than that of the exhaust-pipe from theengine. In other cases I so arrange the partitions that the area of thetubes will be greatest in the section to which the steam is firstintroduced, and gradually diminished in the succeeding sections. Thechamber D is provided with suitable handholes or other openings, throughwhich mud, sand, or other substances that maybe deposited therein, canbe readily removed.

It is evident that the apparatus may be used to condense any vapor or tocool any liquid by passing the same through the tubes in the mannerdescribed; so, also, it may be employed to heat air or other gas, or anyfluid, by circulating the same by appropriate means through the case Bwhen a heating medium-exhaust or live steam, for instanceis passingthrough the tubes, as described.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The perforated plate M, combined With the receivingchamber D andtubes a a a, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

2. In combination with the above, a compound

